President Ilves: books of memories are needed to get a sense of history

02.03.2011

“Approximately one half of the 20th century history of Estonia is locked away in the archives of a certain foreign state, to which we have no access. Therefore, the preserving of memories is highly important for Estonia's memory,” said the President, Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves, today in the house of the Estonian Writers’ Union at a meeting held to mark the publication of a series of the book, “Estonian memory”, which was published by Akadeemia magazine and the Eesti Päevaleht daily newspaper.

“In particular, I invite people who still remember the Soviet era to write their memories down so that we can understand how things operated back then. This is also important for young people who do not remember these bygone days themselves, so that they may understand what happened to our country and our people in occupied Estonia before our independence was restored,” the Head of State emphasised. “Books of memories must be read to get a sense of history.”

President Ilves described the formation of history committees between different countries as ‘fruitless’, as archives are kept closed to historians in one of them and politicians reach a consensus on how the past should be interpreted.